, convulsive
gestures, his eyes glistening, and his mouth grinning and showing his
teeth, so remarkably like a person really possessed that nothing more
true or life-like can be imagined. The next picture contains three
really beautiful figures, lost in wonder at seeing St Ranieri reveal
the devil in the form of a cat on a tub to a fat innkeeper, who looks
like a boon companion, and who is commending himself fearfully to the
saint; their attitudes are excellently disposed in the style of the
draperies, the variety of poses of the heads, and in all other
particulars. Hard by are the maidservants of the innkeeper, who could
not possibly be represented with more grace as Antonio has made them
with disengaged garments arranged after the manner of those worn by
the servants at an inn, so that nothing better can be imagined.
Nothing of this artist gives more pleasure than the wall containing
another scene from the same series in which the canons of the Duomo
of Pisa, in the fine robes of the time, very different from those in
use to-day and very graceful, receive St Ranieri at table, all the
figures being made with great care. The next of his scenes is the
death of the saint, containing fine representations not only of the
effect of weeping, but of the movements of certain angels who are
carrying his soul to heaven surrounded by a brilliant light, done
with fine originality. In the scene where the saint's body is being
carried by the clergy to the Duomo one can but marvel at the
representation of the priests singing, for in their gestures,
carriage, and all their movements they exactly resemble a choir of
singers. This scene is said to contain a portrait of the Bavarian.
Antonio likewise painted with the greatest care the miracles wrought
by Ranieri when he was being carried to burial, and those wrought in
another place, after his body had been deposited in the Duomo, such
as blind who receive their sight, withered men who recover the use of
their limbs, demoniacs who are released, and other miracles
represented with great vigour. But one of the most remarkable figures
of all is a dropsical man, whose withered face, dry lips, and swollen
body exhibit with as much realism as a living man could, the
devouring thirst of those suffering from dropsy and the other
symptoms of that disease. Another marvellous thing for the time in
this work is a ship delivered by the saint after it had undergone
various mishaps. It contains an exce